New Golden Era for Fast Bowling?

With Steyn already close to all time great status, and a new crop of excellent quick bowlers around, particularly in England, Australia and South Africa (with honourable mentions to the West Indies and Pakistan -- Oh, Aamer and Asif!), one could argue that a new golden age of fast bowling is right around the corner. Hell, even India have a couple who can hit the 90 mph mark more than just once in a flukey blue moon!

What are your thoughts on this? Apart from Steyn, who do you think will be the leading fast bowler for the decade?

Also, what do you think has been the greatest era/decade(s) for fast bowlers so far? The late 70s through the 80s? Or the 90s?

Happy chuntering....

For what it is worth, my money is on Cummins being the next great fast bowler, just beating out Philander, Pattinson and Finn.

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He was terrible in that series
I need u like Ross Taylor needed to be fit
He's way better than Henry Nicholls
And now all I can think about is your smile
and that ****** test series too
Losing to Australia sucked and I miss you

Let's hope so. Test cricket has been dominated by the bat for far too long. Wickets make test matches interesting. I'd rather see batsmen jumping around and earning their runs than smashing everything bowled at them around the park.

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Cummins is obviously younger and has more room for improvement, but I think Pattinson's a slightly better prospect at the moment.

Pattinson looks like he's going to be more durable, his action is so simple and repeatable, and he looks physically stronger and fitter. He maintains his pace well and he's just got such sound fundamentals, good pace, consistently puts the ball in decent areas and he's shown an ability to move it either way. I'm not getting carried away because this was only NZ and both decks were pretty spicy, but with his natural attributes I can see him being succesful for a long time to come.

Cummins seems to hit the deck harder and perhaps have a bit more of an x-factor about him, but his action and physique need a lot more refinement before he's going to be consistent and durable at the highest level imo. Action is a bit twisty, pace drops away noticably later in spells and he doesn't yet possess the bowling nous and control which Pattinson has displayed. Although given his obvious talent and maturity it wouldn't suprise me if he polishes these areas up pretty quickly.

And smalishah's avatar is the most classy one by far Jan certainly echoes the sentiments of CW

Yeah we don't crap in the first world; most of us would actually have no idea what that was emanating from Ajmal's backside. Why isn't it roses and rainbows like what happens here? PEWS's retort to Ganeshran on Daemon's picture depicting Ajmal's excreta

OK, no doubt maybe a bit strong, but I'm fairly sure he's better at this stage. Better action, more consistent with his pace etc. What you'd expect from someone who has a good deal more cricket under his belt.

Roach has been around for a few years and his best moments were no doubt in the series away to SL were he was named the man of the series with 15 wickets, and also the hattrick he got at the world cup, but since then he's struggled a bit and got dropped, came back for the Bang and India series recently and never done anything in the Bang Test, done better in the Indian one though and to his credit he was bowling on an absolute road, in the ODI's though he was ok, ended up being joint top in the wickets tally with nine,

When you look at his journey thus far though it's very similar to Dale Steyn's to be honest, started well for his national team, lost form and got dropped, went to county and then regained his form, that's pretty much what Roach has done too but whether he can replicate what Steyn has done since is anyone's guess!! ,

We've got some young gems waiting in the wings though, Jason Holder has been compared to Joal Garner quite a bit and Shannon Gabriel is absolutely electric when he gets going, Carlos Brathwaite, Kevin Mcclean and Brandon Bess could be ones to watch out for too, all tall with pace, Nelon Pascal has been around for a few years and is uulucky to be honest, got into the team to play SL and the game was cut short by rain so he didn't get to bowl, a lot like Fidel Edwards though and it won't be long before he gets another chance me thinks,

But yeah it's exciting to see so many talented pacers emerge in the game, i only wish the best prospect of them all (Ammir) never messed up his career .

Cummins is obviously younger and has more room for improvement, but I think Pattinson's a slightly better prospect at the moment.

Pattinson looks like he's going to be more durable, his action is so simple and repeatable, and he looks physically stronger and fitter. He maintains his pace well and he's just got such sound fundamentals, good pace, consistently puts the ball in decent areas and he's shown an ability to move it either way. I'm not getting carried away because this was only NZ and both decks were pretty spicy, but with his natural attributes I can see him being succesful for a long time to come.

Cummins seems to hit the deck harder and perhaps have a bit more of an x-factor about him, but his action and physique need a lot more refinement before he's going to be consistent and durable at the highest level imo. Action is a bit twisty, pace drops away noticably later in spells and he doesn't yet possess the bowling nous and control which Pattinson has displayed. Although given his obvious talent and maturity it wouldn't suprise me if he polishes these areas up pretty quickly.

When has Pattinson showed he can get it to move both ways? I've only seen out-swing/seam from him and they haven't been as big as Cummins was able to get in SA. Whereas Cummins HAS shown the ability to move it both ways, watch his spell against Prince.

Pattinson has less control than Cummins. He might be hitting better areas in his last 3 innings whereas Cummins has been more scattered, but that's because Cummins is that kind of aggressive bowler and he knows what hes trying (bouncers or yorkers). When Pattinson strays just a bit he becomes easy to play, not with Cummins.

But I agree with that Cummins has a more difficult action, but there is no doubt he is far more talented.